How I Built My Small Business

Dr. Bill and Braden Rawls - CELLULAR WELLNESS: The Missing Piece in Modern Medicine

• Season 2 • Episode 13

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Today’s conversation with Dr. Bill Rawls and Braden Rawls is about understanding health at a cellular level.

Dr. Bill Rawls is a licensed physician with over 30 years of experience in medicine. After facing a personal health crisis in his early forties, he turned to herbal and alternative medicine, restoring his health and becoming a leading voice in holistic wellness. He is the bestselling author of "The Cellular Wellness Solution," and serves as the Medical Director and Co-Founder of Vital Plan, a holistic health company and Certified B Corporation.

Braden Rawls is the CEO and other Co-Founder of Vital Plan, a company she established with her father, Dr. Bill Rawls, in 2008. Under her leadership, Vital Plan has developed meticulously crafted supplement blends using the highest quality ingredients, aiming to empower individuals to take control of their health.

The reason I reached out to them is that the information in Dr. Rawl’s book “The Cellular Wellness Solution” had me buzzing from all that I learned because it made so much sense and provided a missing puzzle piece in my healing journey.

I’ve been battling a couple autoimmune diseases for about fifteen years, and in that time, I’ve seen at least a dozen different endocrinologists, and each and every one of them told me that healing my own autoimmune condition was impossible. All solutions they offered ultimately led to surgically remove my thyroid or killing it through radioactive iodine. A major vital organ.

And, I was unwilling to accept this route as a real solution (for me), and so I spent years reading books to learn as much as I could about thyroid health.

Fast forward to today, and without medication, all of my thyroid levels are back in the normal range - because of what I’ve learned about healing through diet, lifestyle and herbal supplements.

This is not medical advice. The information and opinions presented in this podcast are for generational informational purposes only and do not constitute medical advice. Always seek the advice of your own physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Reliance on any information provided in this podcast is solely at your own risk.


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Speaker 1:

So what healing is? The ability of cells to recover from stress. That's what healing is. A lot of people just they don't understand that simple thing. So if you have a symptom, your cells are talking to you. It doesn't matter where that symptom is. So sometimes a symptom is specific, like if you blocked an artery in your heart, you're going to get chest pain. Those cells are going to be talking to you. An artery in your heart, you're going to get chest pain. Those cells are going to be talking to you.

Speaker 1:

But if you feel fatigued and you just are feeling run down, it means all the cells in your body are stressed and you really should be paying attention. Am I getting enough sleep? Am I eating a decent diet? Am I being exposed to toxic substances? Is there mold growing in my bathroom? Or have I picked up some new microbe that's affecting my cells, this wreaking havoc inside my bathroom? Or have I picked up some new microbe that's affecting my cells, this wreaking havoc inside my body? What's going on? And people don't ask those really simple questions. But those questions listening to your body, listening to what your cells are telling you are more valuable than any lab you can get you can get Welcome to how I Built my Small Business.

Speaker 2:

I'm Anne McGinty, your host, and today's conversation with Dr Bill Rawls and Brayden Rawls is about understanding health at a cellular level. Dr Bill Rawls is a licensed physician with over 30 years of experience in medicine. After facing a personal health crisis in his early 40s, he turned to herbal and alternative medicine, restoring his health and becoming a leading voice in holistic wellness. He is the best-selling author of the Cellular Wellness Solution and serves as the medical director and co-founder of VitalPlan, a holistic health company and certified B Corporation. Brayden Rawls is the CEO and other co-founder of VitalPlan, a company she established with her father, dr Bill Rawls, in 2008. Under her leadership, vitalp Plan has developed meticulously crafted supplement blends using the highest quality ingredients, aiming to empower individuals to take control of their health. The reason I reached out to them is that the information in Dr Rawls' book, the Cellular Wellness Solution, had me buzzing from all that I learned, because it made so much sense and provided a missing puzzle piece in my healing journey. I've been battling a couple autoimmune diseases for about 15 years and in that time I've seen at least a dozen different endocrinologists, and each and every one of them told me that healing my own autoimmune condition was impossible. All solutions they offered ultimately led to surgically removing my thyroid or killing it a major vital organ and I was unwilling to accept this route as a real solution for me, and so I spent years reading books to learn as much as I could about thyroid health. Fast forward to today, and, without medication, all of my thyroid levels are back in the normal range because of what I've learned about healing through diet, lifestyle and herbal supplements.

Speaker 2:

This is not medical advice. The information and opinions presented in this podcast are for general information purposes only and do not constitute medical advice. Always seek the advice of your own physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Reliance on any information provided in this podcast is solely at your risk. Let's get started. Information provided in this podcast is solely at your risk. Let's get started. Dr Rawls Brayden, it is such a pleasure to have you on the show. Thanks for coming on today. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1:

Thank you Pleasure.

Speaker 2:

So, Dr Rawls, it's my understanding that you were an obstetrician for many years and then you pivoted into cellular health. Can you tell us the background on why that transition happened?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it wasn't planned, it was by accident as much as anything.

Speaker 1:

You know I went into obstetrics and gynecology because it's dealing with healthy people, wellness, bringing life into the world.

Speaker 1:

But 30 years ago when I started out with that, I was doing call in the hospital 24 hour, call for labor and delivery and the emergency room every second to third day and I was one of those people that if somebody was in labor or they were in the hospital with a problem, I didn't sleep.

Speaker 1:

So I went like 20 years sleep deprived and just was pushing that stress button all around that and my body started falling apart in my late 40s and that caused me to really take a serious look at where I was going personally and my health in general. I was in pretty bad shape by the time I was 50. And I changed my health habits. But more than that, I started using herbal therapy pretty intensely with the idea that I was carrying the microbes associated with Lyme disease and just had extraordinary results, absolutely extraordinary. So I've been the past 20 years really studying that what happened, why the herbs work, what was going on in my life, and building out different models for how we should be addressing chronic illness than what I learned in medical school and it's really been very fulfilling.

Speaker 2:

Can we go back a little bit more? When you say that your body was falling apart, what do you mean and why did you decide to start exploring herbs?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that again was by accident too. I started developing symptoms in every part of my body. You know I'd been sleep deprived. But even when I gave up obstetrics call and things didn't get better, I really lost the ability to sleep normally brain fog, neurological symptoms. I was worried that I might be developing MS. But at the same time I had irregular heartbeats. My heart was jumping beats every second to third beat. I had chronic chest pain, my gut was a wreck, my joints were falling apart. I mean pretty much my whole body was in distress. But at the same time, going to conventional physicians getting labs, it's like well, you know, we did a cardiac cath, your vessels are clear. Here's a drug to help with those irregular beats Great, and well, you don't have quite enough, you're not progressed enough to be called NMS. Here's some more drugs you can take to help the symptoms Great, and nothing to really put me on a trajectory to take me back to wellness.

Speaker 1:

So it was several years of asking that question what, why? What's going on? Why am I not getting better? And coming back to the possibility of Lyme disease? Because you know I'd had a lot of tick bites in my life but I never remembered getting sick to the possibility of Lyme disease because you know I had had a lot of tick bites in my life but I never remembered getting sick around the time of the tick bite Right but finally found I was carrying some of those microbes, thought antibiotics that's the solution.

Speaker 1:

So I took antibiotics. I got worse. It wrecked my gut and I was really in a pretty hopeless state about that time. This is around 2005. I read a book about using herbal therapy. Pretty intense herbal protocol had some good science behind it. It made sense. So I started using the herbs and I started crawling out of the hole and getting better. And that has been my life ever since of really looking at that issue. I've been taking herbs now for 20 years. I've enjoyed some of the best health that I've had in my entire life over the past decade.

Speaker 2:

So it sounds like you exhausted all of the options that were available to you in the conventional medical world.

Speaker 1:

Correct.

Speaker 2:

And in your book the Cellular Wellness Solution. I mean, you really take this down to the cellular level. That's about as small as you can get.

Speaker 1:

That's it.

Speaker 2:

So what did the research tell you?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think that one of our problems in our conventional system is we don't take it to that level. You know, if you want to solve a problem, break it down to its smallest functional unit and we're looking at the heart like it was a unit, or our nervous system like it was a unit, and those things are all made up of these individual units called cells. So when you look at the body, we are a collection of cells. Every living thing is living cells. So living cells are independently functioning units. You can think about them as little biological machines that have a job, that do work. You know it's like our heart cells are working together to make our heart work. Our thyroid cells are making thyroid hormone.

Speaker 1:

Everything that happens in your body is done by cells, absolutely everything. So if your cells aren't working well, that's, that's what sickness is Sick cells are what happens when we get sick. And so if all your cells are functioning well and they're all coordinated and everything is working, all your cells are working properly. That's what wellness is. It's really as simple as that. Working All your cells are working properly.

Speaker 2:

That's what wellness is. It's really as simple as that. Why would you say that so many people and I don't know if this is worldwide or just in America, but are developing chronic illnesses at some point in their life? What is going on?

Speaker 1:

So you have these cells right. So let's pick a cell in your body Heart cell, muscle cell, doesn't really matter. Every cell has five basic requirements for staying healthy. Every cell in your body, all right. So, number one your cells have to have the right nutrients. You have to eat a diet that supplies all the different cells in your body the nutrients they need. If they don't get that, they suffer.

Speaker 1:

Cells need a clean and operating environment. So when we are exposed to unnatural toxic substances, these things get embedded in our cells and block cellular functions. So it's basically like throwing sand in the machinery of your cell. Your cell can work, but it has to work a lot harder and it's not going to work as well. Cells need downtime to recover from working all day and they get that at nighttime when we're asleep. Cells need good blood flow, chiefly from moving, to flush away toxic metabolic waste and other toxic substances and congestion that builds up in our tissues. And cells need protection from microbes. That's our cell's archenemy.

Speaker 1:

So you look at our world today. Look at the food that people are eating. It's really bad for our cells. It's not a diet that is designed for cellular health. Look at all the toxic substances we're exposed to Just go outside and walk down a highway for five minutes and think about how much you're breathing in, or even inside your home with all the toxic chemicals that get caught inside. And then there's our food. All the toxic chemicals that come in our food Cells are taking a big hit.

Speaker 1:

Average Americans sleep six and a half hours a night. That's average. So if you're sleeping only six and a half hours, it means that every day the next morning when you get up, you start with a deficit that your cells haven't recovered from the day before. Modern humans are very sedentary. We have machines that do all the work we don't move. We spend a lot of time doing what we're doing, sitting in front of a computer screen, which is a little bit toxic in itself. And then think about the fact that we've got 8 billion people on this earth and all of them are moving around like never before and they're passing more microbes than we've ever been exposed to before. And a lot of these things are low-grade things that get in our system, that we don't even know they're there, but they're affecting our cells. So you put all those together, is there any surprise that people are getting sicker than they used to be?

Speaker 2:

And what is so wrong with these microbes being in our bodies? I mean, isn't our body designed to get rid of these?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, the microbes are an interesting variable, that we're exposed to microbes through our entire lifetime, continually. That really don't make us very sick, and a good example is the tick-borne microbes. I didn't remember getting sick when I was bitten by ticks, so we make the assumption. Well, we didn't pick up anything Wrong. Every time you get bitten by a tick or a flea, or get scratched or bitten by a cat or whatever, microbes enter your bloodstream and enter your system, and the things that we're exposed to the very most don't have a high potential to make us sick acutely. But what they do do is they're very stealthy and they can travel through the immune system. They have sophisticated ways can travel through the immune system. They have sophisticated ways of getting past the immune system. They bury into our cells and they do this throughout our body, through our brain, our joints, all of our tissues. Scientists are starting to call it the dormant blood and tissue microbiome, because they can bury into our cells and if our cells are healthy, then they can grow dormant or slow their growth, so the cells keep right on working.

Speaker 1:

So imagine all the things you were exposed to as a child and tick bites that you might've had and times you were bitten by a hamster or a cat, or scratched, and the times that all the things that you've connected with other people, all those things may still have a small presence in your body. And so they're there. They're opportunist, they're waiting until they get an opportunity. So you spend years eating bad food, exposed to toxic substances, not getting enough sleep, pushing that stress button continually, not getting exercise. They start to erupt and they start to break down your tissues. They start to break down your cells. Well, that's what chronic Lyme is, but it's also what all other chronic illnesses are. The connections go to multiple sclerosis, dementia. Everywhere you want to go, you can find aspects of this, and I've been studying it for 20 years and what I'm finding is, using AI I'm accelerating that research to find there's a lot of very good evidence that this is very, very real. So, yeah, it's a big deal.

Speaker 2:

Well, and when I was reading your book, this part of it was really alarming to me as just potential data and information, because I suffer from autoimmune conditions and have always wondered why would my body attack itself? That doesn't seem like a normal way to operate. So if you're saying these microbes can live intracellularly, then it brings up the potential that maybe this is the cause of autoimmune. Maybe, maybe, maybe. At least it's worth exploring.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, maybe. Yeah, these things start erupting for your cells and your immune system says, oh, we can't have that, and starts attacking the cells where those microbes are erupting from. I don't think you can explain autoimmunity without considering that possibility. Yeah, you're right.

Speaker 2:

Oh, and I love that you've taken it down to the cellular level. And so, brayden, I want to get you in on this conversation and maybe, dr Bill, you might have a little bit more to say. But as we transition into the vital plan business that you've started to help support everything that you've learned, can you tell us first what you have learned about the power of herbs, Like why herbs over other supplements or over conventional medicine? Like what is it that's so wonderful about herbs?

Speaker 1:

That was a big awakening for me, because I'd always discounted herbs as kind of being weak versions of drugs. And now I realize it's apples and oranges. They're nothing alike. So what drugs are doing is blocking processes in the body to reduce symptoms in some way. So it's very artificial and it's not addressing those root causes. So it really doesn't do anything to improve cellular stress, so the symptom doesn't really go away.

Speaker 1:

So what we're doing with an herb is basically borrowing the plant's entire defense and regulatory system. So plants are always producing lots of chemicals to protect the plant's cells from free radicals, from toxic substances, from microbes of every variety. But at the same time it's in a system with a certain amount of intelligence to it that it's not like an antibiotic. That's one random chemical. Here we're talking about a system that affects pathogens but it doesn't affect our normal flora.

Speaker 1:

So when you're taking an herb, unlike an antibiotic where you kill off your gut flora, you actually spare your gut flora. In fact, herbs actually help balance the gut flora because they suppress pathogens without hitting our normal flora, and it's not just for bacteria or just for protozoa, it's covering all the different kinds of microbes. So when you take an herb you're getting this really wonderful system that's counteracting all of those stress factors that I just talked about, including the microbes, without having any significant toxicity in the body. That is pretty remarkable. And then there's some herbs called adaptogens that we actually have the effect of reducing our stress hormones. You put that all together and it's just. You can't find a better solution to the problem I just outlined.

Speaker 2:

So, brayden, when did you decide to join your dad in this mission? How did that all take place?

Speaker 3:

Well, I will share. I now am fully a believer in the power of herbal therapy and we're on this mission together to expand herbs to a wider audience. But you know, really it was Dr Rawls' personal journey I have to call him Dr Rawls, not dad Dr Rawls. So it was Dr Rawls' recovery that first brought me in and then fast forward. These tens of thousands of customer stories have firmly made me a leader in this mission.

Speaker 3:

But my role in this story really started with Dr Rawls' recovery. So when he was at the height of struggling with illness that was 2005, I was in college studying business and entrepreneurship and Dr Rawls was able to largely shield me during the height of his struggle. So then I graduated from college, got a job and I can remember he visited one weekend and was just moving so slowly and I finally got impatient, called him out Dad, you feel like you're in a fog here and you're walking so slowly. What's going on? He said let's go on a walk, a slow walk in the woods, and let me share something with you. And so during that walk he really brought me in on how he had had this disruption in his career as an OBGYN, where I left off with him to this debilitating struggle with chronic illness, and that was really heartbreaking and very difficult for me to hear.

Speaker 3:

So at the end of hearing this story, I said well, what can I do to help? Because we have a tendency to want to come in and fix things for people when our loved ones are suffering. And he said you can help me by helping me to help other people. I'm taking this herbal regimen, I'm improving my health. I believe in it. There's a lot more to learn, but I really I think that this can help a lot of people. Help me to use this struggle that I've had to bring this solution to a wider audience, and so that's really the start of our journey together.

Speaker 2:

And once he mentioned the idea of working together to reach a broader audience, what did you do? I mean, you were still in college, yeah, well, actually.

Speaker 3:

I had just graduated from college, had a job, and so this was the first four years of working together. It was nights and weekends, really, for Dr Rawls and myself. We spent a lot of time on nights and weekends discussing how we could create this program right out of his experience and share it with patients. And then he'd see patients throughout the day and then come in the evenings and say well, here's what I learned. I printed out these papers and I gave it to someone and they came back and they had written notes all over this and they gave me this feedback. And so it was these learnings, and then we had this patient base that gave us the volumes out of the gate to start manufacturing products, to inspect specifications and getting feedback there to really launch this product line.

Speaker 2:

What was it like starting an herbal supplement business?

Speaker 3:

Well. So we had this patient base out of the gate and I think that that was key for us, because you have to manufacture in quantities of. Back then it was maybe a thousand bottles at a time. I think that's even low now, these minimum order quantities. But we had this built-in population who was already interested in herbal supplements, buying them from the local GNC they preferred to buy them from Dr Rawls. So we were able to source a higher quality of ingredient and then start bringing them to his patient base and they loved the products and had better results from these products than even the list that he was giving them to go and buy on the Internet or from local stores. So that's how it really got started, but certainly a learning curve learning the regulatory environment, all the manufacturing standards, bringing in some consulting, help as we went.

Speaker 2:

How did you develop your formulas?

Speaker 3:

So we really look at those potency and purity. So you want ingredients that work and that's been determined by Dr Rawls and what are the active constituents of that particular herb that you want to look for to ensure the potency? What are the different parts of the herbs that might have synergy and work together? That's all been Dr Rawls and our R&D department. But then on the purity side, that's about testing finding suppliers that are trusted, sourcing ingredients correctly, and then having the layers of testing so that we can then have that.

Speaker 1:

It was having to learn supply chain and learn sourcing of ingredients and you know, and connecting with manufacturers. So she and I had to learn the business from the very bottom up and that was worthwhile. You know a lot of businesses I know. Just call up a supplement company or a manufacturer and say, hey, make this for us. And we weren't doing that, you know. We were having things made to very specific specifications, buying and sourcing our own ingredients, and she and she and I did all of that in the beginning.

Speaker 2:

And then what about sourcing, like, how can you ensure that the ingredients that you're sourcing, that they meet the standards or requirements or hopes that you want for formulating the best option for your patients?

Speaker 1:

That was a little bit of intuition and a little bit of science and just putting it all together. My whole approach was going beyond traditional medicine. So I studied all the different forms of traditional medicine European, ayurvedic, chinese, all the rest of them but my brain was still based in Western science and I was formulating these ideas about cellular health and that sort of thing. So what I was interested in is how the chemistry of the plant was affecting us at the cellular level or how it was affecting microbes et cetera. So plants have different characteristics. So it's all about problem solving. So the plant is protecting itself from any stress factors that might be in that natural environment and that determines the phytochemistry, the chemistry of the plant that you're going to get.

Speaker 1:

So some plants really don't jive with human biochemistry very well. It's like you wouldn't make the mistake of eating poison ivy and expecting a medicinal effect. So it's studying those characteristics and then taking that and seeing what people were using, seeing what my patients had success with, and then taking kind of the best of the best and pulling that together in formulas, looking at what had been historically used and building out formulas. And that was pretty exciting. I enjoyed that. We actually have several levels of testing. I mean, you know we all take these products. I want them good and I really care about the results that people who use them have. So you know, we just aren't going to cut any corners there.

Speaker 2:

And if you don't mind sharing at the very beginning, how much did it require for you to invest in order to start VitalPlan?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we were lucky that we had Dr Rawls' patient base there at the time so we could meet the minimum order quantities. And I'll say this was 15 years ago and so the quantities were lower at that time. I think the threshold now to enter the market is higher. So we were able to buy into these smaller batches and then get feedback from consumers, produce revenue and selling those supplements. Reinvesting the profits allowed us to then buy larger and larger quantities. We did take on angel investment pretty early on, and so then, in addition to stocking the products and having an R&D budget then we were able to build a website, a support team and start doing some marketing.

Speaker 2:

And what was that process? Like finding angels.

Speaker 3:

We got lucky. So we found first a physician who really believed in what we were doing and it was purely a passion investment for him. And then I connected with some local business advisors and then one of those made a significant investment in the company early on. And then we have raised some additional angel investment. Some of that has been to purchase inventory to build out our customer support programming.

Speaker 2:

You both really started this from the ground up. What have been some of the biggest challenges that you've faced with? Starting and trying to scale your supplement business?

Speaker 3:

Oh my goodness, it's been a roller coaster. One of the biggest things is breaking into a very crowded space where people buy based on trust, something they're going to put in your body for health reasons and so Dr Rawls had that trust with his patients. He has trust with people who get to know him. But there's definitely a trust building period and so for trying to scale, running digital ads in the beginning, that really didn't work well for us because people hadn't heard of Dr Rawls, heard of VitalPlan. There wasn't trust, and so we've had a very long sales cycle.

Speaker 3:

Because there's education about typically the herbs we're using are new to someone, we have to establish the credibility, and so that's really been a challenge with the marketing. And then, in addition to that, we're in a regulated health category of marketing claims. So herbal supplements is really in between food and drug. But if you're taking herbs, it's for a therapeutic effect, but they work very differently than drugs, so you shouldn't be making the same claims. But it's an intended health effect. So it's a no man's land for marketing and a lot of marketing channels that are regulated. They don't know how to decipher these claims. So it's taken some practice, some refining.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's. Sometimes it's challenging to tell people what the products actually do in terms that they will actually understand. It's challenging.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we're selling a product for a health benefit, but we can't say what it does. It's an odd space to be in of marketing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, truly.

Speaker 2:

That's very interesting and very challenging, and I also I relate when you say the digital marketing can eat up dollars so quickly and you don't necessarily get the impact that you want. So what strategies have been the most effective for growing your brand beyond your patients?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, really it's content marketing, right, the education introducing Dr Rawls having his credibility, his story is really compelling. And then that education about the herbs, the safety, the results of these regimens, and then, finally, customer success stories, of which, when we were first launching, only had a handful it was mainly Dr Rawls' story behind this regimen but now we're in a position where we have over 12,000 customer stories, and so it's really that arsenal customer stories that we're leading with.

Speaker 2:

That's so compelling, wow 12,000 customers is quite a bit yeah we've impacted a lot of lives.

Speaker 1:

So I mean, for me at this point in my life, that's what counts the very most, is how many lives can we truly impact, how much difference can we make, how much can we change the conversation?

Speaker 1:

Because, like you said, chronic illness is at 60% of the population and growing, and here, in a country where we spend more on health care than any country on earth and our populace isn't healthy, it just screams that we're not paying attention to the right things. And the equation for health, as I discussed, is fairly simple and it's just if I can get that across to people, that concept of content marketing, then you know I've already accomplished more through Vital Plan and changing people's lives than during my entire medical career seeing patients in an office. And so the more that I can build that out, the more that I can build out the education and build products that actually have true impact in people's lives, build programs that people can follow to find that pathway back to wellness, I can have an enormous impact that I could never have had just as a conventional physician. So I see a lot of power there and empowerment of people, and that's what it's all about.

Speaker 2:

And are you planning to keep your business model as direct to consumer, or have you explored the potential for retail?

Speaker 3:

Not retail. I think the next channel that we would expand into is practitioner partnership. So we're doing a little bit there, but a much more dedicated push in the future that's going to come with education to practitioners about how to use this protocol and we develop our own network of practitioners.

Speaker 2:

Or maybe even all of the integrative physicians or holistic practitioners who are already sort of in line with your way of thinking.

Speaker 1:

Sort of, but sometimes less than you would think. I mean, we live in a world that doctors, providers, don't talk to patients anymore. We've replaced all that with testing. We want data and something that I found in my practice. I was at a point in time functioning essentially the same as what you would define as integrative or functional medicine. I was doing all the testing. I was doing all this stuff and what I found was the more I sat down and talked to the patient and understood how things had come together in their lives to impact their health. That provided the roadmap for them to get well, and I just didn't need to do any testing.

Speaker 1:

So I think we spend a lot more time and effort and resources testing people than we should. We should be, you know, helping people learn how to pay attention to their own body, and that's a lot of what I do is help people realize the answers are all there. The body is telling you exactly what you need to know all the time. It's screaming at you and people don't listen. They go to a healthcare provider and ignore that and pay thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars for testing. It really doesn't end up moving the needle very much, and that's kind of where I am right now with. I would like to have like-minded providers that recognize the importance of just helping the patient understand themselves, their own body and how powerful these things can be, and then minimizing, being a lot smarter about our testing, because we waste an enormous amount of resources on lab testing.

Speaker 2:

So when you say that the body is telling you, the body is screaming at you, can you elaborate on that? What do you mean?

Speaker 1:

Your cells are screaming at you, right? So yeah, when your cells are stressed, like if you trip and twist your ankle, it hurts, right? So those injured cells in your ankle are sending messages to your brain that something is wrong. So two things happen when cells are injured. One, they send a message to the brain. We feel it is pain. So they're talking to you right there, they're sending you a message. But the second thing is, if cells are compromised, they can't do their jobs. So you start to lose that function. So not only does your ankle hurt, but you can't walk on it very well, and if you keep doing that, it's going to get worse and worse and worse. So you have to take the weight off of it so it can heal. So what healing is the ability of cells to recover from stress. That's what healing is.

Speaker 1:

A lot of people just they don't understand that simple thing. So if you have a symptom, your cells are talking to you. It doesn't matter where that symptom is. So sometimes a symptom is specific, like if you blocked an artery in your heart, you're going to get chest pain. Those cells are going to be talking to you. But if you feel fatigued and you just are feeling run down. It means all the cells in your body are stressed and you really should be paying attention. Am I getting enough sleep? Am I eating a decent diet? Am I being exposed to toxic substances? Is there mold growing in my bathroom or have I picked up some new microbe that's affecting my cells, this wreaking havoc inside my body? What's going on? And people don't ask those really simple questions. But those questions listening to your body, listening to what your cells are telling you are more valuable than any lab you can get.

Speaker 3:

So insert vital plan. We're building people a framework right that they can go through and have that checklist and the support and the resources to do that exercise themselves, Instead of needing to go through the testing and then finding the treatment. There's so much that people can do, that's affordable, it's immediately accessible, and so with VitalPlan we're hoping to get more people started on that pathway and ultimately save them a lot of money, so are you providing education materials on the VitalPlan website?

Speaker 3:

Well, for a long time we sent those materials via email, so sold the products with purchase of the products, we would send an email series and PDFs. And that just snowballed over the years as we got feedback and we said let's build this resource to answer this question. So we have this huge database of resources for our support team, and so just last summer we built an app that we call the VitalPlan Network, and so we were able to load all those resources onto the app and develop a community and a place where we can now go and interact with our customers. They can interact with each other. There's a whole library of resources. So for us, that's really the future is we'll be doubling down on that app this year and to have some new, more formalized programming coming. That is very exciting.

Speaker 2:

I had no idea Hadn't seen that information yet, so I will definitely go and check it out. Dr Rawls, do you think and Brayden too, that with proper supplementation with these herbs that people can truly prevent chronic illness? How much is lifestyle impacting our chronic illness and how much is our lack of nutrients?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's not lack of nutrients. Everybody gets that one wrong. It's like it's not vitamins and minerals. Everybody's getting enough vitamins and minerals. You'd die if you didn't. What the problem is is this excessive load of carbohydrate and abnormal fats that we're getting in our food and our cells just aren't designed for that. That we're getting in our food and our cells just aren't designed for that. You know our cells were programmed for an ancient foraging food diet that humans did for hundreds of thousands of years and that was lots of vegetables and plant matter, roots, stems, leaves and lean animals, and you know that's what our cells are programmed for. But there wasn't much carbohydrate or fat on the menu. You had to eat a lot of food, which means you ate a lot of fiber for your gut to be normal. Well, our current diet heavy in carbs, heavy in fat, low in fiber, low in phytochemicals all the things that we need the very most to keep ourselves healthy aren't there and they're not programmed for this.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so the herbs are not nutrients. It is specifically the phytochemical properties.

Speaker 1:

Ah, you're right, it's, you've got it. You know, everybody likes to classify oh, I'm taking my herbs to get my nutrients. No, that's not the answer. It's the phytochemistry of the herb. And if I had to label the one thing that was most missing in our current diet, it would be the natural phytochemistry of herbs. Because you think about it, that ancient forage food diet was about two-thirds plant matter, but it was all wild plants. It was wild berries and stems and leaves and roots and these things were loaded with these protective phytochemicals. So about 10,000 years ago, when we traded that for grains and beans, those food sources are very deficient in these protective phytochemicals but we kind of sense that, humans sense that. So we kept our culinary herbs and we kept our medicinal herbs and it kept that phytochemistry going even when we changed our diet. We gave all that up for about a hundred years ago and traded it for drugs and we've been suffering for it ever since.

Speaker 2:

It makes so much sense as you were talking I was thinking about. Okay, so does that mean in countries where they still utilize herbs in such vast quantities, are they better off than we are when it comes to chronic illness? So I'm thinking of India or Nepal or places like that.

Speaker 1:

That's a good place to start. Yeah, yeah, people in India consume lots of herbs in their curries and they eat about a gram of turmeric every day, along with a lot of other herbs. They use a lot of herbs in their diet. So, despite the fact that India is very overcrowded, very polluted, has tons more microbes than we do. They have some of the lowest rates of cancer and Alzheimer's in the world, and it's attributed to the herbs that they eat.

Speaker 2:

Interesting.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So I want to ask what is it like working as a father and daughter duo?

Speaker 1:

It's been interesting. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world, Brayden, I'll let you say, but I tell you it's been a gift, the whole thing. It's been a blessing. I mean, I look at where I was at age 50 and wondering if I'd ever see 2025. And here I am and it's just been glorious.

Speaker 3:

I will echo that my dad and I have had many, many close moments over the years and a lot of it is through working together. Of course, I'll share that it can be hard to separate business and personal if you partner on a company with a family member, and so certainly holidays and any trips, we're always talking about work and my mom and my husband will say, all right, go off, talk about the business, then come back. We're always talking about work and my mom and my husband will say, all right, go off, talk about the business, then come back. We'll cut you off, but it's been a lot of fun to work together.

Speaker 2:

How many people do you have on your team helping you?

Speaker 3:

So we currently have 10 employees but also work with a large number of agencies and contractors. That's actually quite a big business. Yeah, some of our team members are customer success stories, which has been very cool. Right To have customers who believe in what we do so much then that they've come back and wanted to work for the company, and so, as part of the future, especially now that we have this network, we'll be looking for what are more ways that we can plug in this network of customers who are so they have this newfound passion for herbs and for healing. How do we activate that, then, and bring them into the fold with their talents?

Speaker 2:

And so, looking forward to that as part of the future, and as we start wrapping up this interview, I know we have about 10 minutes left or so, but, dr Rawls, what are you most excited about as far as medical advancement goes for the future?

Speaker 1:

It's kind of a back to basics kind of thing. I think we really, really miss the basics of cellular health. And we're, you know, we try to fix things. So you know, our first step to solve a problem is create a pharmaceutical for it. And what I've just come to appreciate is, when it comes to chronic illness, there is not a pharmaceutical or medical procedure made that can reverse cellular health and therefore promote healing not one, and that's, I guess, more of a disappointment. I would like to see that change. And there is a place for medicine. You know, braden has heard me say many times that I think there's a place and a purpose for every pharmaceutical and every medical procedure, but we overutilize those things.

Speaker 1:

What we do well in conventional medicine is acute intervention. What that does is it can stabilize a bad situation. You know, when somebody has a blocked coronary artery, we can unblock that artery and possibly save their life. But it's the body that's going to heal. Healing always has to come from within the body and you know it's a frustration. I mean I see the oncologist, the cancer doctors patting themselves on the back, going, wow, we've developed this new innovative therapy that does a better job of killing cancer people, cancer cells, we can keep more people from dying, while the cancer rate is going up and up and up and up and up, and it's like you're doing zero to actually prevent cancer. We have a real problem here. So you know.

Speaker 1:

As far as advancements in technology, I think we need to get back to the basics and start catching up on that. There are some advancements, though, and, quite frankly, I'm using AI a lot to advance my knowledge faster, and what I'm coming to the conclusion is everything that I've thought as far as theories. I try to verify with science and there's a lot of great science out there and I've been able to verify everything that I've mentioned so far but it's very tedious, and, using AI, I can forward that much faster. I can pull the data together, and what I can tell you is we know how to solve the problem of chronic illness. They're just barking up the wrong tree.

Speaker 2:

Well, I hope that you're right and I hope that we can get back to the basics and look more preventatively at how we can have better health. Going back to the business side of what you two have created together, what advice would you give to an aspiring entrepreneur any aspiring entrepreneur who came to you and wanted to learn from your journey?

Speaker 3:

Stay lean and mean right. Keep your expenses low, put out your minimum viable products that you can test and iterate and get feedback and improve and you do that over and, over and over again, as opposed to swinging for perfection out of the gate. There's so much you can learn with having that MVP right and testing and underwriting on top of that.

Speaker 2:

Do you have plans to expand the line of offerings so this year?

Speaker 3:

we're expanding the product itself by releasing more programming, launching the community and the app around our signature Restore program and education and inspiration around that to live. This we call the full Vital Plan lifestyle. We've got more coming a lot of tricks up my sleeve of things this new AI and tech to deliver a more full experience and keep that cost effective for the customer. This is through the new app.

Speaker 2:

Okay, I can't wait to look it up. So, as a final question here, Dr Bill Brayden, if you could go back and talk with yourselves when you were in your early 20s, what life wisdom would you give yourself?

Speaker 3:

the moon, and throughout my 20s that was my expectation is that the business has to see rapid growth to be successful. And so I've now learned it's going slower in the beginning, iterating, getting it just right, building something that's rock solid, that then over time you've iterated, you've optimized and then you can scale. So I'd say, be patient.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I don't think I'd tell myself anything because I would have to tell myself about some really difficult and uncomfortable and unpleasant things that were coming ahead for me to get to where I am now and it might have dissuaded me from actually doing some of those things and they were important. Sometimes you have to go through that to get to a different place or a better place, to go through that to get to a different place or a better place, and I can't trade any of it because, wow, what an opportunity. I just I would never know the things that I know if I had not had this opportunity that ended up being connected so closely with Brayden and all the people that we've connected through with Vital Plan. I just I'd never trade it for anything.

Speaker 2:

It's kind of like you're exactly where you're meant to be right now.

Speaker 1:

That's the feel, yes.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, your experience was required in order for you both to land in this wonderful spot, and I love how you're using impact as your driver of success, and I feel like that it will, no matter what, continue to grow because your motivation is so sincere. I appreciate so much that you've come on the show and that you've shared your story, shared some of your knowledge with us, and I look forward to following along with Vital Plan Network and seeing what else you have up your sleeve.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, thank you, sleeve, thank you.

Speaker 3:

Wonderful. Thank you, Anne.

Speaker 2:

If you've enjoyed this episode, or any episode, could you do me a quick favor? Share it with just one person in your life who might love it too? If each of you did that, we'd instantly double our listenership overnight, allowing us to bring in even more incredible guests and continue producing content that inspires and empowers you. Just one episode to one person. I massively appreciate it. Today's key takeaways If your cells are stressed, you will eventually feel it, whether it's fatigue, brain fog, pain or chronic illness.

Speaker 2:

Most of us treat symptoms without looking deeper, but every function in your body starts at the cellular level. When your cells don't get what they need nutrients, rest, detoxification, protection they can't do their jobs. That's where disease begins. A new way to think about wellness is to ask what your cells need, rather than what pill can suppress the pain. How are you treating your cells? Are you sleeping enough, moving enough, minimizing toxins and fueling yourself with the right food? The average American gets only six and a half hours of sleep, creating a daily deficit that compounds over time. Sleep is when your body repairs and detoxifies. Without it, your cells never fully recover from the stress of the day. Over time, this leads to cellular breakdown and chronic symptoms If you're tired, inflamed or mentally foggy, sleep may be one of the first things to address before turning to external fixes. Chronic conditions may stem from dormant microbes that wake up when your body is weakened. Dr Rawls suggests that stealth microbes picked up through tick, bites, scratches or even close contact can lie dormant in your cells for years. When your system is under stress, these microbes can erupt and your immune system may mistakenly attack your own tissues. If you're living with autoimmune conditions, have you explored microbial factors or cellular stress as possible root causes?

Speaker 2:

Herbal supplements are not for their vitamins and minerals. They're used for their phytochemical properties, not their nutrients. Don't expect them to act like pills, but do explore their cumulative benefits. One of the most powerful things you can do is listen to your body and connect the dots in your personal health story. Dr Rawls says that understanding how your life, stress, habits and environment have affected your body can sometimes be more revealing and empowering than expensive diagnostics. What is your body trying to tell you? Are you listening?

Speaker 2:

Brayden's entrepreneurial advice is clear. You don't need perfection to begin. You need clarity, feedback and patience. They launch their business by reinvesting profits, testing in small batches and building slowly with education and impact to build a strong foundation. What's your minimum viable idea or product? Can you put it out into the world before it's perfect and then improve it through real feedback? If you're entering a crowded market, build trust first, especially in wellness. Trust is currency. In an industry full of hype and quick fixes, vital Plan built credibility through storytelling, education and customer success, not flashy ads.

Speaker 2:

After a lifetime in conventional medicine, dr Rawls says the most meaningful work of his life has been empowering people through education and herbs. Their North Star is simple impact. How many lives can they improve? How much good can they do? So in thinking about this, consider what does success mean to you. How do you measure your own success? Dr Rawls believes many chronic illnesses are not mysterious at all, but we're simply not treating the real root causes. Are we over-relying on prescription and ignoring prevention? What if true health is a return to the basics? And, as Dr Rawls says, sometimes you have to go through hard times to get to a better place you never could have imagined. Vital Plan was born out of suffering and now it's helping thousands. And while you may not understand the reasons for any hardship you may be facing, what if you're exactly where you're meant to be. That's it for today. I release episodes once a week, so come back and check it out. Have a great day.

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Anne McGinty

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